


Detective Nalaar

by Wolkemesser



Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: Crush, F/F, Gruulfriends - Freeform, Ravnica, Secret Admirer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-10 00:40:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18649402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolkemesser/pseuds/Wolkemesser
Summary: Someone is leaving flowers for Chandra; anyone could be the culprit, but with a little bit of sleuthing, Chandra is sure to find out who!(For MtG Month of the Ship - Day 18: Secret Admirer)





	Detective Nalaar

At first, Chandra thought the flowers were part of the room service on Ravnica.

It made sense, she reasoned, that someone as supposedly important as Jace was would have a discreet staff that tended to the place. It _had_ seemed a bit odd that they would leave flowers on her nightstand and not clean up the rest of the room, but she’d been too busy to give it much thought.

Then came the note.

Chandra awoke one mid-afternoon to find a small pot of bamboo by her bed, with a scrap of paper underneath it. Most of the writing had been scratched out, including the name, but whoever had brought the plant had left a small heart in the corner of the note.

She skipped breakfast and ran straight to the rooftop, where Nissa was meditating.

“Nissa, Nissa!” She plopped down next to the elf excitedly, holding out the bamboo. “Did you get a note with your plant this morning? I think one of the staff left me something.”

Nissa’s eyes blinked open. She looked startled.

Chandra smacked herself mentally. _Nice going, hothead. Couldn’t wait for her to finish before you barged in on her._

“Oh, th-that?  Couldn’t have…what sort of plant is that? Haha…sugarcane? Why would I give you sugarcane?” Nissa scrambled to her feet, and nearly tripped over Chandra as she stood. “Wait…that’s…not what you asked.”

“Oh, no that’s alright…I…uh…sorry for interrupting your meditation.” Chandra was barely taking in what Nissa said, she was so flustered. “I got excited and a bit careless and you know so much about plant…stuff…Um…what were you saying?”

“I…” Nissa closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “The only plants I have in my room are my own that I’ve been growing.” Her ears were still twitching. Chandra felt another pang of guilt for interrupting her.

“Oh, okay.” Chandra rubbed her chin, trying and failing to think while Nissa stared at her with those wonderful, soft green eyes-

“Wait…is this one of yours?” Chandra felt her heart do a small jump. “You didn’t…is this from you?”

“What?” Nissa’s ears started twitching even more rapidly. “I’ve been up here meditating. Besides, you…you keep your door locked, right? How would I get in?”

“Oh, uh…that’s fair.” Chandra’s felt her face fall, and forced a smile back on it. _Be a good friend, darn it!_

“A-a thief!” Nissa exclaimed. “Someone must have taken some of my plants? Yes, that sounds…plausible.”

Chandra frowned. It wasn’t like Nissa to get so flustered. Maybe…

“I’ll get to the bottom of this!” Chandra slapped a hand against her breastplate. “Don’t worry, Nissa. Detective Chandra is on the case!”

“Chandra! W-wait!”

But Chandra had already turned and hurried back in the direction of her room. To look for clues. Definitely not to just hide her face after making such an outrageous statement.

** ** **

The next day Chandra set an early-morning alarm to catch the flower-thief in the act. By the time it roused her however, someone had already placed a tall sunflower by her bedside. There was no note this time, but there _was_ a small heart traced into the dirt.

“Hmmm…” Chandra poked the large clay pot the flower was placed in, and examined it closely with a cracked magnifying glass she had taken from Innistrad. “Looks heavy…it would take a comically beefy pair of arms to move this…”

She found Gideon in the kitchen, laboring over a sizzling pan of eggs, bacon, and tomatoes. He greeted her with a smile.

“Morning Chandra. Hungry?”

“I’ll ask the questions around here, buddy.” Chandra grabbed a piece of bacon from the pan and chomped down on it. “Where were you all morning?”

“Um…”

“What do you know about the flowers that have been showing up in my room?”

“I…didn’t know you had flowers in your room. Is everything alright?”

Gids looked genuinely concerned, so Chandra tried the nice-consulate approach.

“Look, it’s fine if you were leaving flowers in my room. I’m flattered, but please don’t take them from Nissa without telling her.”

“I-I’m not! Honest.” Gideon put both hands up. “I would never take Nissa’s flowers without asking! She’d probably twist my arm off.”

“Hmm, true.” Chandra jumped up on the counter and ate more of Gideon’s food, pensively. “She _is_ pretty strong…” She patted Gideon on the shoulder with the magnifying glass. “Sorry about that Gids. You know how it is, tracking down criminals and bringing them to justice.”

He laughed. “Do you need any help tracking down your flower-thief?”

“Hmmm, some fuel would be good. All this detective stuff is hungry work.” She grabbed a handful of tomatoes and scampered out of the kitchen. “Thanks Gids!”

** ** **

Chandra woke up the next morning to find a braid of forget-me-nots lying atop her goggles. These she tucked behind her ear before heading out to the dining hall for breakfast. Maybe she could catch Jace before he had to start working. Maybe the team telepath had picked up some brainwaves on who might be leaving gifts. She found him wandering the side hallways, his nose buried in a book.

“Heya Jace, I wanted to ask…wait…”

Jace looked up from the book in his hand and raised an eyebrow at Chandra. “What is it? Everything alright?”

“You…you’re not Jace.”

“Uh, what? Of course I am.” Jace closed the book and spread his arms. “I’ve got this cloak and everything.”

“Jace always has a nerve pounding in his temple when he talks to me. Because my thoughts are ‘too loud’ or something like that. You look totally calm.”

Not-Jace sighed, and his features ripples like a heat distortion. His cloak became darker, and his face seemed to shrink into his hood, until Chandra could just see a wrinkled mouth and white hair.

“Congratulations, you might be the first human to see through my disguise in centuries. I am Lazav, guildmaster of-”

“Was it _you_ sneaking around and leaving flowers in my room?”

“I…what?”

“You’re clearly some kind of…demure spy?”

“Dimir.”

“Whatever. Have you been leaving flowers in my room?”

“No, I…I had a meeting scheduled with the guildpact and I wanted to spook him. It…sounds like you have a secret admirer.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was hoping at first.” Chandra shrugged and strode past the shapeshifter. “Jace will be late for your meeting!” she called back. “Lavinia always has to drag him away from breakfast!”

She found Jace in the dining room a minute later, huddled over a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper.

“Heya Jace.” She plopped down across from him and took one of his slices of toast. “You hear thoughts, right?”

“Uh, as far as I know.”

“Cool, cool. Has anyone been thinking about stealing Nissa’s flowers recently? Or putting them in my room?”

Jace looked up, blank-faced. “Nissa’s flowers have been showing up in your room?”

“Yeah, every morning.”

He chuckled and looked back down at the paper. “Sounds like you have a secret admirer.”

“Why does everyone think that?”

“It’s what admirers do. Lili leaves little dolls made out of bone on my desk if I don’t come visit her often enough, and Ral leaves notes burned into my desks when I miss his appointments.”

Chandra cocked her head. “Those sound like…different situations. Plus, you know who they are.”

“Mmm, it helps to read minds.” Jace tapped his head. “Plus, with a secret admirer, you usually already know who she is.” He looked up suddenly. “I mean, you know who _they_ are.”

“You _do_ know who it is, don’t you?” Chandra stood up, brandishing her magnifying glass at Jace. “Fine, keep your secrets. I’m on a hot streak of deductions, and I only have one more person to interview!”

“Uh, wait, I don’t think it’s who you think it-”

“GUILDPACT!!!”

Jace cut off quickly and scurried out of the chamber. Lavinia came stomping in a moment later.

“Where did he go?”

Chandra shrugged. “Sorry arrester. I’m a detective, but I’m no snitch.” Then she scurried away with the last of the toast as Lavinia cursed the heavens and every planeswalker beneath it.

** ** **

 

The next morning there was a trio of bright-colored ditch lilies in a delicate wooden vase. Chandra admired them from her bed for a while before getting dressed and seeking out the least likely culprit from within the Gatewatch.

“Are you…are you asking me who has been putting flowers in your room?” Liliana set down her glass of wine and sat up from the balcony chair where she had been sunning herself, for some reason in full view of the window to Jace’s study. She had not tanned, even a little. “Are you seriously asking me that question?”

“Uh, yeah…I’d like to figure it out. Maybe thank them.”

Liliana raised an eyebrow. “It…It’s definitely Nissa. You know that, right? It’s 100% definitely Nissa.”

Chandra shook her head. “I thought of that already, but she said it wasn’t her.”

“She….lied?”

“Nissa wouldn’t do that. Why would she lie about something like flowers?”

Liliana sighed and swung her legs over the side of the reclining chair. “You and I are very different people, aren’t we dear?” She patted Chandra’s head and started inside.

“Wait, where are you going? I need your help figuring this out!”

“You really don’t.” Liliana tapped her chin. “Why don’t you wait for a moment when Nissa _isn’t_ trying to center herself and ask her if she can track where the flowers came from with her…leyline tricks. If you’ve got a plant-based mystery, go find a plant expert.”

“I guess, but I don’t want to go back to her empty-handed.”

“Oh, I think she’ll be happy enough to see you no matter what you’re doing with your hands.” Lili gave her a strange smirk and a wink. “Now, Jace just stepped out for lunch. Want to help me rearrange his bookshelves?”

Chandra bit her lip. She really _did_ want to mess with Jace’s stuff, but…

“I should go see Nissa.”

“Yes, you should.” Liliana waved and started up the staircase to Jace’s study. “I’ll turn a volume upside-down for you.”

 

** ** **

 

She found Nissa on the roof, surrounded by a small army of tulips. Some were in beds Nissa had constructed along the edge of the roof, others were in small clay bowls that the elf was carting back and forth, trying to arrange artfully.

Chandra waved hello. Nissa replied with a nod and a soft smile. There was a single bench not currently covered in vegetation, so Chandra plopped down on it cross-legged and watched enjoyed Nissa’s garden in silence for a while, while a firestorm of uncertainty raged inside her.

 _How do I ask? She already said it wasn’t her so what if she gets angry or annoyed that I asked again? What if she isn’t my secret admirer? What if she_ is _my secret admirer?_

“Chandra?” Nissa was watching her from a few feet away, looking concerned.

“Did you leave the flowers, Nissa?” Chandra blurted, cursing herself internally “I mean, I definitely wouldn’t mind if you did, I guess I would sort of like it? You know, because flowers are so pretty and they smell really nice and you like being around them all the time. Uh, I mean…you don’t have to tell me, but I…I’d really like to know.” Chandra looked at her feet. “It would make me happy to know they came from you…”

Nissa didn’t say anything for a long while. Chandra watched her out of the corner of her eye, just standing by the flowers, the slow city wind blowing that beautiful braid of hers just off her neck…

She walked over and sat down next to Chandra. The tulip in her hand was the loveliest Chandra had ever seen. Deep green tinged with blue.

“I’m not saying I left the plants for certain. But…if I did leave someone flowers, well…” The rosy glow of the elf’s cheeks matched the flower in her hands. “Well, that person would have to be very important to me” She looked Chandra in the eye. “As important as _you_ are to me, at the very least.”

Chandra ran a finger gently down the stalk of the tulip. “I understand…I think.” She brushed the top of the flower, and the soft, silky petals tickled her fingertip.

Nissa nodded rapidly, also looking determinedly at the flower.

They sat not speaking, though not in silence. You really couldn’t get away from the sounds of the city, even in a place as private as Jace’s home. For someone who needed the quiet as much as Nissa did, it must have been frustrating.

“Nissa…How would you like…what if we went to one of the Selesnya gardens? Sometime this week? Somewhere quiet where we can walk around, and I can chase off any of the cultists who try to bother us?”

Nissa nodded again, slower this time. “That…would be wonderful.” She lay her fingers over top of Chandra’s hand, guiding her back up to the flower. “I can show you some of the variations they have here and…and maybe give you some to take to your room?”

Chandra tried to think of something cool to say, but with Nissa’s hand on hers, and a date (was it a date????) hanging in the air, she could only manage a small muffled grunt that she hoped sounded like a ‘yes.’

 

_The above is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC._


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